Datacentre providers are actively looking to expand their services range, following indications that the market is set for consolidation, according to analyst firm, IDC.

Datacentre providers are actively looking to expand their services range, following indications that the market is set for consolidation, according to analyst firm, IDC.

In its latest report, Demystifying the A/NZ Datacentre Provider Market , it showed that the trend is leading to an increase in cases where datacentre providers are looking for opportunities to engage with one another and form strategic partnerships.

The report carried out a competitive analysis on different datacentre provider types.

IDC A/NZ infrastructure research manager, Glen Duncan, said there are many ways that datacentre providers can maintain competitive differentiation in a rapidly evolving industry.

"Key strategies include investments in technology, mergers and acquisitions, traversing the datacentre stack, and partnering with other businesses that have complementary capabilities," he said.

Duncan claimed that as providers offer a range of services, including co-location, managed infrastructure in a third party datacentre, or public Cloud infrastructure services, it will result in significant crossover and direct competition between different provider types.

"Coupled with the increasing scale and reach of multinational corporations and ICT vendor datacentres, smaller and specialist datacentre providers will need to find alternative avenues for differentiation," he said.

Duncan highlighted that energy efficiency is one such alternative for smaller players in the industry.

"IDC sees an increase in demand on the customer side for datacentres with a 1.2-1.3 PUE rating, but with many datacentres in operation for over 10 years, there is opportunity there to leverage newer technology to drive down the PUE rating."

In addition, he claimed that telecommunications providers are finding many opportunities for a go-to-market strategy with other providers.

"Collaborations and partnerships between businesses in adjacent areas can be a strategy that quickly enables an organisation to develop its capabilities, broaden its portfolio of integrated services and innovate in order to continually develop competitive advantage," he added.